LOGINWhich was somehow worse.August noticed the shift in her expression immediately.“You’re nervous.”Althea frowned slightly.“I’m not nervous.” She argued.“You’re absolutely nervous.” He pointed out.She looked away again.“He’ll understand eventually.” She muttered.August barked out an actual laugh.“No, he won’t, Althea.” He countered and that made her glare harder at him. “He’ll understand why. But that doesn’t mean he’s not going to lose his mind first.”Althea exhaled slowly.True. She thought dreadfully.The gates of Blackstone finally appeared just after noon.Immediately, Althea noticed the difference. She saw additional guards that she knew Helena have brought from the island it with unknow tactical positioning. She noted the reinforced outer security.August muttered quietly, “She really turned the estate into a fortress.”Althea barely heard him because her stomach dropped when she saw Dominic standing near the front entrance, waiting.His arms are crossed and his expressi
The meeting with the generals lasted until dawn.The conversations did not drag unnecessarily, but because every answer revealed another layer beneath the Axis Gate.Another consequence, terrifying possibilities.By the time General Reyes finally rolled the old maps closed again, the prayer hall had grown silent with exhaustion and the weight of what they learned lingered heavily over everyone inside.Althea stood near the long table, arms folded tightly while staring down at the convergence point one final time.The Axis Core. She thought intently, her mouth in a straight and firm line. The hidden center beneath decades of blood, war, manipulation, and silence. And now Luca is moving toward it openly.Reyes approached her quietly.“You understand what happens if he gets there first.” He commented.Althea nodded once.“Yes.”“Then don’t underestimate how far he’ll go to secure it, Althea.” He advised.Salcedo stepped closer as well.“He’ll start escalating pressure soon.” He informed
Dominic turned back to Michael immediately.“She took August?” He demanded intently and Michael nodded. “And, your father f8cking let her go? He didn’t even try to stopped her?!”Michael folded his arms.“I don’t think she gave him much choice.”That somehow made Dominic even angrier.Vincent quietly muttered, “She’s becoming more like Alessandro every day.”Dominic shot him such a murderous glare that Vincent immediately looked elsewhere.Michael stepped closer.“They’re not unprotected.” He informed.Dominic looked at him flatly.“Not helping, Devereaux!”“The generals sent reinforcements when they came to fetch them.”“Still not helping.” Dominic snapped.Michael exhaled heavily.“Dom.” He sighed heavily. “Althea figured something out before any of us did.”That stopped Dominic because he knew it was true.Althea had seen the pattern first and Nicholas helped expose it further.Now, the Axis Gate existed because she refused to stop looking deeper.Dominic’s jaw tightened painfully.
Night had settled heavily over the outer routes when Dominic finally saw Michael’s vehicle approaching from the eastern road.The convoy had stopped temporarily inside one of Alessandro’s abandoned relay compounds hidden beneath the old industrial district.A forgotten place made of concrete walls, rusting steel and with only minimal lighting.Exactly the kind of location Alessandro favored.Invisible unless someone already knew where to look.Dominic stood near the edge of the compound when Michael stepped out of the vehicle, Enrico following behind him together with two-armed men from Seraphina’s side.The moment Dominic saw Michael’s face, he knew something shifted.Sebastian noticed it too.“What happened?” The older man asked firmly.Michael exhaled slowly and walked directly toward Dominic.“We found the archive routes.” He answered instead.Dominic nodded once immediately.“Useful?”“Yes.” Michael responded and then paused for a while, his face showing that he’s debating with h
Althea barely heard August cursing beside her, because she is now seeing and understanding of something horrifying.“The Axis Gate wasn’t simply transportation.” She stated quietly. She gripped her fists tightly at the realization. “It’s engineered into a psychological movement control.”Nicholas’ instinctive understanding became far more terrifying.Velasquez watched Althea carefully now.“You see it now.” He remarked gently.She nodded faintly.“Yes.” She answered stiffly. “It’s alive.”The generals remained silent because that was the correct word.The Axis Gate adapted.Redirected.Controlled flow through pressure systems.Salcedo pointed toward Alessandro’s network.“Alessandro had gotten his hands on one part of the system years ago.” He explained and then pointed to another one. “And after studying and understanding the structure, he buried it deeper.”Reyes’ expression hardened.“Alessandro never wanted the Axis Gate active again.” He scoffed lightly. “The ba$tard thinks that
“Luca needs the Axis Gate.”The room fell silent after Reyes’ final words. The statement settled over the old prayer hall like something ancient waking beneath the earth.Althea stood unmoving beside the table, her gaze fixed on the convergence point spread across the maps while the implications slowly deepened inside her mind.Beside her, August remained unusually quiet for once, his expression shows that he understood that this had just become something far beyond mafia territory.It’s no longer about turf or retaliation.Or legacy.This was infrastructure.Control.Power hidden beneath decades of secrecy.Reyes slowly lowered himself into one of the wooden chairs near the table while Salcedo rolled another map open beside the first.An older map.Yellowed at the edges.Hand-marked.Military coded.The moment Althea saw it, her stomach tightened because the familiarity of it is undeniable. The map contained same movement lines, same pressure corridors and convergence point that Nich
The hospital was not supposed to feel like a battlefield.Althea stood scrubbed and gloved beneath surgical lights, hands steady, voice calm as she issued instructions. Around her, the operating room moved with precision. The monitors are humming, instruments passed without error, a choreo
Dominic had learned when he’s still young to immediately recognize when silence stopped being neutral. He was taught that it will never come in an announcement and will never be loud.It came as a shift with too many doors opening easily, too many messages arriving late, too many people suddenly car
There was no violence.Only absence.Althea immediately noticed when Helena did not arrive for breakfast.As far Althea knows, Helena was never late but deliberately missing. There were no familiar footsteps, any soft knocks. She felt no presence that had, for years now, become the quiet spine of A
The garden behind the Devereaux complex was designed to deceive.At first glance, it looked harmless. The garden stretches wide into manicured grass, low stone paths warmed by the sun, a canopy of old trees filtering light into something gentle and almost domestic. Birds nested freely here







